Who We Are: Leadership

PEL school heads and teacher mentors come from a variety of educational backgrounds and a wide range of teaching experience. Some of them have gone to traditional schools of education and many of us have earned degrees in particular disciplines. However, in true progressive fashion, all of them actually learned to teach and grew as teachers "by doing".​Most importantly, what all of these school leaders and mentors have in common is a commitment to sharing their experience with young people who wish to become powerful teachers and agents of change in the profession.

School Heads

Emily Jones​Head of SchoolThe Putney Schoolejones@putneyschool.org

​Emily has created her own graduate school of education by living and working all over the world. She is fascinated by the ways in which brain science is confirming what early progressive educators knew by observation.

Jane MouldingHead of SchoolThe Cambridge School of Westonjmoulding@csw.org

​Jane Moulding is a hands-on head of school who loves the "change and innovation" parts of progressive education. She also loves the nineteenth century in literature and the arts.

Teaching Mentors

​Marilyn Del Donno is a science teacher and sustainability coordinator, with a background in oceanography; Marilyn is a jill of all trades and confesses a fascination with compost toilets.

Evelina GalperMath TeacherThe Cambridge School of Westonegalper@csw.org​Evelina is teaching mathematics and integrated studies at The Cambridge School of Weston. She thinks that mathematics is the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to human kind and is very confident that her students will believe the same.

Rachel Hirsch is known for her love of Alexander the Great (and she has the tattoo to prove it!). Rachel is a historian who inspires. Her classes are full of lively discussion, spirited debate, and hands-on learning.

Noah HoskinsHistory Department ChairThe Putney Schoolnhoskins@putneyschool.org​Noah Hoskins is a history teacher and a member of the freshman seminar team - an integrated study called Humans in the Natural World at The Putney School. He loves the mind-bending challenges of globalization, and also animal husbandry. He hopes that his students find complexity and questions in their work, rather than tidy answers.

Mike KeimMath Department ChairThe Putney Schoolmkeim@putneyschool.org​Mike Keim is the Mathematics Department Chair and has been teaching on and off for 20 years with breaks for graduate school and to work in the energy industry. He chooses to teach at a progressive school because of the flexibility it gives in designing meaningful student assessment, the focus on meeting students where they are, and the integration of physical and mental work.

Kate has been an outdoor educator, a ski and soccer coach, a classroom teacher and a director of urban expeditionary learning. She believes that experience is the best teacher and so designs her classroom to be endless cycles of experience and reflection, practice and feedback. She is interested in how to cultivate both creativity and critical thinking as students find their authority as learners. She says that, "writing—the generating, exploring and constructing of ideas with language—is an essential tool for all types of progressive education."

Tad Lawrence is the head of the science department at CSW and a member of the visual arts department as well. He is an active proponent of diversity in independent schools. Tad began his career following individually tagged beetles - insects - around New England and the mid-west.

Todd, a long time teacher of Mathematics, is continually interested in how experiential education works in a variety of settings. He has been a teacher and leader in independent and progressive schools for twenty years. In addition to teaching in the classroom, Todd has led extended trips in South Asia and Central America and the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.

Agnes landed in education by way of missions work, corporate finance, and entrepreneurship. "My experiences in these different settings were stepping stones to where I am today." She teaches math and entrepreneurship at The Cambridge School of Weston.

LynneWeinsteinArt Department ChairThe Putney Schoollweinstein@putneyschool.org​Lynne's interest in progressive education was born in a small elementary school in the 1960s. She came to teaching from a career as a photo editor and artist and believes in the value of making art a daily practice in life. Now she explores with her students how photography can teach us to see organic intersections among art, science, and history.

Dawn ZweigScience TeacherThe Putney Schooldzweig@putneyschool.org

Dawn Zweig was a designer and lead teacher for Putney's Humans in the Natural World integrated ninth grade course. She also teaches a senior course in ecology and complex systems. She is a scientist and environmentalist known for inspiring students to put their questions to sue as activists to change the world.